captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley reporting tonight from washington. >> pelley: good evening. as bank slogans go they don't come any worse than this: the preferred financial institution of drug cartels and money launders. that is a quote today in a u.s. department of justice report about h.s.b.c. holdings, one of the largest banks in the world. to avoid criminal prosecution, h.s.b.c. admitted today that it laundered more than $800 million for mexican drug cartels and covered up illegal transactions for burma, iran, sudan, cuba, and libya. those nations were under banking sanctions because of human rights atrocities, terrorism, or, in iran's case, a nuclear program. the british bank will pay $1.9 billion to the u.s. government, the largest such fine in history. senior correspondent john miller is in new york following the story for us tonight. john? >> reporter: scott, it's a case that has everything: everything except an arrest. and that struck some as odd because in an 80-page document of court papers, the bank admits to almost going out of its way t